David Ranallo emailed this photo of hail that fell in Eden Prairie on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013.

Severe thunderstorms dropped large hail that left cars with dents and broken windows as they rumbled across Minnesota's midsection Tuesday evening.

Reports of 1-inch and 2-inch hail were common as the storms passed over the Twin Cities metro area. The National Weather Service said trained spotters also reported 3-inch hail near New London and 2.5-inch hail near Morris in western Minnesota.

WCCO Radio carried numerous reports from listeners reporting hail damage to vehicles and other property, as well as trees and branches downed by the storms.

The Eden Prairie Police Department posted a photo on its Facebook page showing a squad car with its rear window smashed out by the hail.

Xcel Energy said more than 44,000 customers from St. Cloud through the Twin Cities metro area were without power around 9 p.m. By 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, the company said about 11,000 were still without power.

In the west metro, the outages appeared to be concentrated in a swath from Lake Minnetonka through St. Louis Park and Edina to Bloomington. In the east metro, the outages appeared to be concentrated in eastern Inver Grove Heights, St. Paul Park and western Cottage Grove.

The storms also led to at least a couple tornado warnings, near Willmar in western Minnesota and in Pine County in the east. But there were no reports of touchdowns.

The National Weather Service had earlier issued a tornado watch that included the Twin Cities metro area.